Archive for conferences
First Tunisian Barcamp to be held tomorrow!
Al Ghazela Technology park will host tomorrow the first Tunisian barcamp ever. More info on Start up Arabia.
It seems that finally the barcamp trend is spreading out very quickly in the Arab world. Tomorrow two different barcamps will be held in parallel, the Tunisian one and the UAE one I’ve already posted about. I hope the Tunisian and the UAE folks will result in some interesting interaction tomorrow!
To follow up…
Next Arab barcamp to be held in Dubai on 9th may
The next Arab barcamp is going to be hosted in Dubai Internet City on 9th may.
More info at http://www.barcampuae.org/
The programme looks very exciting with some very cool topics to be discussed like “social media for social change”
“We use social media tools everyday to make new friends, form interest networks, share pictures and videos, spread news and information like wild fire, and learn and share knowledge within communities.
A growing number of initiatives like MobileActive.org, Twestival, Change.org, PosorNot.com, the Facebook causes app, etc are using the power of social networks to make a real difference in peoples lives.
Let’s put our heads together in this animated discussion by sharing examples and exploring ways to affect social change by using social media tools”.
Or this one, “How social translation can help prevent the web replicating knowledge divides“, propose by George Weyman who is working for the very cool SF based platform Meedan.
Barcamp UAE looks a cool event and it seems that the Arab world is quickly opening its doors to the barcamp culture by adding interesting topics and lively discussions.
Discussing Wikipedia in Damascus
For those of you who are in Damascus, Syria, tomorrow 5th of may, there is a very interesting event happening at 4pm in Al Asad Library organised by Syrian Computer Society to discuss about the famous Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is the largest online encyclopedia but the pages written in the Arabic language are still very poor in numbers. Lots of efforts have yet to be done within the Arab community of Wikipedia contributors.
One of the major problem till now was the fact that many of them prefer writing articles on the Wikipedia English, in order to communicate with other communities more directly (and, let’s admit it, also because writing in Classical Arabic is not the easiest thing to do, not even for native speakers).
Things got even more complicated when Egyptian Wikipedia appeared under the name of Wikipedia Masri, written in the Egyptian dialect. Last december, this move has generated lots of discussions in the Egyptian and in the Arab blogosphere, as reported by Global Voices.
Is it the opening of local Wikipedia “versions” in local Arabic dialects the right solution for the lack of Arabic content on the web?
Thoughts about the EU Parliament meeting on Arab media
The meeting about Arab media was hosted yesterday in the EU Parliament in Brussels thanks to the effort of PSE group. Jamil Azzar -the one who created the Al Jazeera‘s motto “the opinion and counter opinion”- was there, and obiously was the one who received most comments, questions and critics. Al Jazeera is still an hot potato, even after 13 years of broadcast. I’ve been always thinking how strange and powerful is the fact that everybody has got an opinion about this TV station, even the ones who don’t understand Arabic. Many in the audience were still skeptical about AJ independence regarding Qatar and its policy, some of them praised the station for being the one who opened the way to free speech in Arab media, others -among them, a Lebanese from International Crisis Group- criticised the station for being too close to Hamas during the Israeli attack to Gaza of december 2008. He underlined that both Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya are following the “mass audience imperative” -focusing mostly on Panarab issues like Palestine and Iraq- while forgetting other dramatic crisis as the Sudan (he claimed International Crisis Group has been proposing Al Arabiya to broadcast footage and information from the country for free for the past few years but they never accepted it-.
Ahmed Kamel, former head of Brussels bureau of Al Jazeera and author of the programme “Min Uroba” (From Europe), attacked the station for being linked to religious extremists and not being free from Islamists when it comes to its programmes.
The debate was also focused on the use of vocabulary: the eternal fight over the word “shahid” (martyr) used by Al Jazeera and by most of Arabic stations when it comes to people dying in Palestine under Israeli occupation. Kamel, who now works for BBC Arabic, didn’t agree at all with the use of this word, while Al Jazeera justifies it -only when it comes to Palestine- by claiming it is a “contextual word”, that is used only in the Israeli-Palestianian context.
I recently noticed in Damascus, when attending a panel about “objectivity in Arab media”, that the debate over “shahid” is not not only widespread in the Western world -where nobody understands what “shahid” really means and in which context the word is placed-. It also generated a very hot discussion in Damascus where -even if the majority of the audience was agreeing with using it for Palestine- some people openly declared that they disagree about it. Among them, the director of the new born Syrian channel, Orient (Mashrek) TV, based in Dubai.
The debate over Arab media is always very hot and I think we as Europeans will need many years in order to discuss about this as a “normal” media system. There is still too much suspect, angryness, post-colonial imprinting when dealing with the topic.
Debates like the one hosted by the PSE group in the EU Parliament are really useful at least to have the two parts speaking one in front of each other, freely, without prejudice.
MBC’s Group content director, Badih Fattouh, and Hussein Amin from American University of Cairo were also present,bringing up to discussion respectively the topics of entertainment and of the Arab Charter to regulate satellite broadcasting in the Region.
After the panel, we screened some excerpts from my Rome Arab Tv festival, “West by Arab media”. I noticed that, once again, even in Brussels, the “Irhab Academy” episode of the musalsal Tash Ma Tash is still the best welcomed by the audience.
If only Europeans were a little bit more ready to accept that the Arab world has got diversity and irony, too, maybe we could screen many other examples like Irhab Academy that would really take the debate over the Arab media at a deeper stage than Al Jazeera and terrorism only.
Alesco conference on technology and Arabic language starts tomorrow in Damascus
I am going to attend tomorrow this very interesting conference which has been co-organised by Alesco, King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology and the Arab Academy of Damascus.
The programme is very rich in contributions coming from all across the Arab world (there are also contributions from the US and France) touching important topics for the future development of Arabic content through new technologies and the Internet. Issues like the terminology used for computer science will be widely discussed.
On the 28th at 9.45 Ziad Maraqa, Creative Commons’ co-lead in Jordan, will be delivering a speech about Creative Commons in the Arab world.
المنظمة العربية للتربية والثقافة والعلوم
مدينة الملك عبدالعزيز للعلوم والتقنية
بالتعاون مع مجمع اللغة العربية
بدمشق
اجتماع خبراء المحللات الصرفية الحاسوبية للغة العربية
دمشق 26-28/4/ 2009
جدول الأعمال المقترح
الأحد 26/4/2009
9.00-9.30 كلمات الافتتاح
9.30-10.15 المحلل الصرفي للغة العربية لمخبر” ميراكل”
تقديم د عبدالمجيد بن حمادو – تونس
10.15-11.00 محلل صرفي عربي موجه بالتطبيقات
تقديم د.محمد سعيد الدسوقي – سوريا
11…-11.15 استراحة
11.15-12.00 محلل صرفي للكلمات العربية : خارج السياق وداخله
تقديم د.عزالدين مزروعي – المغرب
12.00-12.45 محلل صرفي للغة العربية
تقديم د. ابراهيم خراشي - السعودية
12.45-13.30 تصميم وتنفيذ محلل صرفي للغة العربية باستخدام تقانات
الذكاء الصنعي
د.فاضل سكر – د.سمر معطي - سوريا
13.30-14.00 مناقشة عامة
استراحة الغذاء
16.00-17.00 واقع المحللات الصرفية الحاسوبية للغة العربية – د.سلوى
حمادة
17.00-18.00 تقرير في المحللات الصرفية للغة العربية - د.محمد زايد
الاثنين 27/4/2009
9.00- برنامج (مداد)للتحليل الصرفي للكلمات
العربية
تقديم عبدالمنعم فريد عبدالمنعم-محمود محمد
صابر - مصر
9.45-10.30 محلل صرفي للغة العربية
تقديم المهندس مجدي صوالحة - بريطانيا
10.30-11.15
ElixixirFM Functional Arabic Morphology.case Studies
تشيكيا Dr.Otakar Smrz
11.15-11.30 استراحة
11.30-12.15
Buckwalter Arabic Morphological Analyzer (BAMA) in Arabic Presentation
Form
Authors: Tim Buckwalter (Qamus.org) and Nizar Habash (Columbia
University)
USA
12.15-12.30
محلل صرفي للغة العربية
Fathi Debili (Directeur de recherche)
Laboratoire LLACAN – UMR 8135 du CNRS
Langage, langues et cultures d’Afrique Noire -FRANCE
12.30-13.15 آليات تقييم المحللات الصرفية
مقترح د.سلوى حمادة
13.15-13.45 آليات تقييم المحللات الصرفية
مقترح د.محمد سعيد الدسوقي
الثلاثاء 28/4/2009
9.00-9.45 حول المحللات الحاسوبية المشاركة في الاجتماع
الأستاذ مروان البواب
9.45-10.15 مفهوم تراخيص المشاع الابداعي لحماية حقوق المؤلف والترجمة
القانونية
الأستاذ زياد مرقة - الاردن
10.15-11.00 مشروع أيه –سبل
القاموس العربي للتدقيق الاملائي مفتوح المصدر-تجربة
وآفاق
تقديم طه زروقي – الجزائر
11.00-13.00 مناقشة التوصيات والتقرير الختامي
Arab Media at the European Parliament in Brussels
For those of you who are in Brussels or not too far, here you are some info about the conference organised by PSE at the European Parliament to be held next 29 april. I am going to moderate the first session, starting at 4pm, with Al Jazeera, Mbc, American University of Cairo‘s keynotes. At the end of the session, I will also deliver a speech about the Internet and current web 2.0 situation in the Arab world.
Second panel is starting at 5.45 pm till7.15 and will be moderated by Beatrice Patrie, member of the PSE, featuring speeches of Deutsche Welle’s Dirk Beusch, BBC Arabic‘s Ahmad Kamel, Anna Lindht Foundation‘s Andreu Claret. Thomas McGrath from European Commission will also join the panel.
At the end of the debate, from 7.30 pm till 8.30 pm, there will be a TV screening of some Arab Tv programmes that I had selected for the festival “Occidente dai media arabi” held in Rome last january 2008.
There are lots of interesting TV materials, including musalsalat, everything subtitled in english.
The event is open to everybody, so pls circulate.
In room ASP, A3G3, European Parliament, Brussels.
Laughing at stereotypes in Beirut
For those of you that are in Beirut those days, there is a very interesting event on 14 th april at Hangar. Spotlight on stereotypes is organised by Umam a lebanese ngo which takes care of preserving the country history and memories through various activities, supported by artists, filmakers and many international organisations.
The focus this time will be on Danish Arab stereotypes and will feature the performance of famous Danish Egyptian comedian Omar Marzouk. Journalists from Denmark and from the Arab region will be attending the event, and also the Danish Ambassador in Lebanon will address a speech at the opening. Just to prove that Denmark is involved more than ever in trying to enhance communication and cultural exchanges with the Arab world, as previously noted here during Rasmussen‘s trip to Istanbul for the Alliance of civilizations summit.
The discussion will start at 7Pm and will be followed by live Dj music.
More info at: http://www.umam-dr.org
Alliance instead of clash…
Rasmussen has just spoken right now. He thanks the Turkish hospitality and then he addresses very directly to the sad issue he is famous for. Starts by saying that “censorship is the enemy of the dialogue” while “freedom of expression helps long term peaceful development”. A very clear sentence which confirms the positions he used to hold during the crisis. But now he looks softer than he used to be in the past during the cartoon episode: “I condemn any action that offends any religion..I respect Islam and its religious symbols and the feelings of all Muslims..I would never myself depict any religious figure…Likewise I was sad to see that these cartoons were considered by some Muslims like as an offense”.
He adds that, as the new secretary general of Nato, he will “pay close attention to the religious and cultural sensibility of the diverse communities that live in this various world”. “I consider a personal responsibility for me to carry on the dialogue with Islamic world”, he points out and the crowd’s applause proves everybody welcomes this new approach.
Obama sending greetings to the persians on You Tube for Newroz, Rasmussen personally taking care of the cultural and religious dialogue, what’s happening to the world?
What is clear is that a new era, at least in communication policies, has started. Words like alliance and dialogue are taking crusades and clash places in international communication vocabulary. The entire world is now hoping that this will be not just a re-styling and a new make up with the same old face.
Istanbul calls upon for an Alliance of Civilization
The Alliance of civilization summit has just started few hours ago in the beautiful city of Istanbul and will last until tomorrow. The programme is plenty of insights and thoughts to fight against the alleged “clash of civilization” that after 9/11 sadly become our way to interpret everything happening in the world. Turkish prime minister Erdogan, with Spanish Jose Luis Zapatero, have strongly supported this Forum. There were rumors that also US president Obama and Rasmussen, the new Nato secretary general, will attend the meeting, probably tonight and at a private dinner. If we think about what George W. Bush has meant for the “clash” of civilization and what he has done to ignite it, Obama’s visit is even more meaningful. Moreover, Rasmussen’s presence is very key, too. The Muslim world has not forgotten what Denmark did with Prophet Mohammed’s cartoon, but since this dark page of intercultural relation Denmark has done a lot to improve its image in the Muslim world, and it’s not a matter of “brand” and image building only. Denmark is organising lots of initiatives towards the dialogue, enhancing its presence in the Muslim world and Rasmussen’s visit could be a step further in a process that is anyway happening everyday thanks to danish institutions and people that are doing a lot. I am just wondering where Italy is in all this (a part from our pm ‘s phone calls). We used to have a strategic role in the Mediterranean that we are loosing day by day, being too much concentrated on our little political plays. What role will we be playing in this future alliance of civilization?and are we really doing something to enhance our dialogue with the muslim world like Denmark is doing? I don’t think so, unfortunately.
More from the conference later, if they get us translation. I couldn’t understand a word of Erdogan’s speech in Turkey cause they run out of hearing (official reason: more delegates than expected). Since translation is key for dialogue, and there is no alliance of civilization without dialogue, I really hope they will provide us with it soon. Otherwise it risks to be a big event done for the sake of doing a big event, in a nice luxury hotel but without taking care of these “small” details that make the difference.
Al Jazeera, soap opera arabe e Obama al Festival del Cinema Africano di Milano
Per chi di voi si trova in zona Milano, ci sono una serie di appuntamenti “arabi” che vorrei segnalare.
Intanto la 19esima edizione del Festival del Cinema Africano di Milano (23-29 marzo) che inizia oggi. Quest’anno il lavoro fatto da Alessandra Speciale e Annamaria Gallone, direttrici del Festival, è veramente eccezionale, considerando i tempi cupi che stiamo attraversando in Italia, in termini sia di finanziamenti alla cultura che di sensibilità verso le culture “altre”. Il programma è ricchissimo: http://www.festivalcinemaafricano.org/.
Mohamed Challouf ha invece curato, sempre all’interno del Festival, una sezione dedicata ad “Al Jazeera, l’occhio arabo sul mondo” che comprende la proiezione di preziosi documentari e programmi della rete del Qatar. La sezione ospiterà inoltre una tavola rotonda, curata sempre da Mohamed, alle ore 17 di giovedi 26 marzo presso lo spazio Oberdan, alla quale partecipa anche Ahmad Mahfouz , il direttore del Documentary Channel di Al Jazeera.
Inoltre, verrà proiettata per la prima volta in Italia la soap opera di produzione giordana Al Ijtiyah (l’Invasione) vincitrice dell’Emmy Award 2008.
Sabato 28, sempre all’interno del Festival, presentiamo il nostro libro su Obama:
Sabato 28 marzo – ore 17.00 Libreria FNAC Milano
In occasione della sezione tematica su Al Jazeera, il Festival del Cinema Africano di Milano presenta il libro
“Un Hussein alla Casa Bianca. Cosa pensa il mondo arabo di Barack Obama” (Odoya, 2009)
a cura di Donatella Della Ratta e Augusto Valeriani.
Obama ha passato l’infanzia in un paese musulmano, l’Indonesia, e il suo secondo nome è un nome arabo, Hussein. Può il nuovo presidente americano rappresentare l’interlocutore giusto per il Medio Oriente? Su questo gli arabi e i loro media, dai blog ad Al Jazeera, si interrogano in questi mesi. Gli autori del libro analizzano i media arabi, raccolgono le opinioni di giornalisti, studiosi, uomini d’affari e persone comuni in Medio Oriente e in Usa, offrendoci una prospettiva sui futuri rapporti tra Stati Uniti e mondo arabo.
Alla presenza degli autori e di Khaled Fouad Allam, sociologo e autore dell’introduzione del libro.
